A threshold free PMU-based fault location scheme for multi -end lines

In this paper, a fault location scheme is introduced for multi-terminal double-circuit untransposed lines with multiple tap-nodes and multiple branches emanating from the same tap-node. The proposed scheme consists of two steps. In the first step, a new threshold free searching scheme is proposed for faulted branch identification utilizing only the synchronized terminal measurements. The proposed searching scheme is very simple and it does not require examination of all branches to determine the faulted branch. As the faulted branch is determined, the fault location problem of multi-terminal network becomes two-terminal fault location problem and the second step is applied to obtain the exact fault location utilizing one of the proposed fault location schemes in open literature. Different fault locations and resistances and all types of faults are tested to evaluate the scheme performance. In addition, the system is evaluated under influence of changing ground resistivity and synchronization errors. (c) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).